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Poll Suggests Most New Jersey Residents Support Sports Betting

Betting on the Birds will be legal if most voters in New Jersey have their way, but the measure will first have to pass in Washington.

TRENTON, N.J. (CBS) – New Jersey voters next month will decide on a constitutional amendment that would allow sports betting in Atlantic City casinos and at race tracks across the state. A new poll shows widespread support for the change although, the referendum is far from the last word on the question.

Results of the latest Rutgers-Eagleton poll were no surprise to director David Redlawsk.

“58-percent of likely voters say they support sports betting, only 31% oppose. Republicans actually support it at a higher rate, 64-percent. 58-percent of Democrats and just over 50-percent of independents.”

The closer voters live to the shore, the more likely they’re behind sports wagering. But the ballot question is more a poll itself than anything else. Betting on pro sports and such won’t happen without either a court decision overturning a federal ban in all but four states, Delaware being one of them, or a change of heart in Congress, which put the ban in place.